1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of telecommunications systems, and more particularly, to systems and methods for allocating telecommunication resources to an application in a telecommunications system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional computer telephony products allow for connecting applications to particular computer telephony resources, or components. To connect these components within a computer telephony product, the application must be written to use each manufacturers programming interface for the application to be able to communicate with the telephony resources. For each telephony resource within a computer telephony product, it is necessary to write a portion of the application that is dedicated to issuing instructions to that particular type of telephony resource.
In conventional computer telephony products, each application includes a design phase, coding phase, testing phase, and integration phase. Specifically, each portion of the application must be designed to integrate with a specific functionality of each dedicated computer telephony resource and the overall product. This functionality is specifically coded, or written, using computer language code. Each coded portion of the application is then tested to ensure that it functions exactly as designed. Finally, each portion of the application must be integrated to create the final product.
In creating such conventional computer telephony products, multiple development paths are followed during the development cycle. Further, the complexity of conventional computer telephony products requires a large number of paths and a large number of operations along each path. Specifically, these paths must be followed for each portion of the overall system, such as an interface to a particular computer telephony resource or a particular user interface. Moreover, in every instance that a computer telephony resource is changed or added, the appropriate development paths must also be changed or added. This is particularly troublesome when the computer telephony resource involves different types of hardware.
To help ease development, a first generation of software based computer telephony products used Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools to design systems. These conventional CASE development systems make it easier to determine how many paths or what changes are needed on a given path to build or reconfigure a computer telephony product. These conventional systems, however, do not reduce complexity because they can not, for example, reduce the number of paths needed to complete changes in a conventional computer telephony product.
A second generation of software based computer telephony products used Code Generators (CG) to design systems. The CG development systems automated the process for developing paths to completion. This makes the actual time spent following the paths to completion more reasonable. Conventional CG developed or derived systems, however, have numerous drawbacks. For example, similar to the conventional CASE developed systems the CG developed systems cannot reduce the number of paths necessary to be followed for completion.
Moreover, any additional computer code input beyond that generated by the CG program is lost and must to be re-done for each change in the path to completion. These changes, of course, are tedious and laborious and the process is prone to introducing new or additional errors into the computer telephony product.
To further help ease the development process, a third generation of computer telephony products developed through the vendor companies that produce the computer telephony resources. Specifically, these vendors developed two divergent design schemes that provide design specifications that computer telephony resource manufactures might follow. If followed, the specifications allow for computer telephony resources from different vendors to operate within the same computer telephony product.
The first of the two design schemes developed is Multi-Vendor Interface Protocol (xe2x80x9cMVIPxe2x80x9d) and the second design scheme is SCBus. It is noted that the original design scheme was called SCSA for Signal Computing System Architecture, later this was modified to SCBus, which is Signal Computing Bus, and it has now been extended for multi-chassis integration and is call SCxBus for Signal Computing extended Bus.
Although these design schemes allow for having multi-vendor computer telephony resources within a single conventional computer telephony product, there are still drawbacks to this generation of computer telephony products. Foremost among the problems is that these standards only apply to the communications between telephony resources and make no changes in the application to telephony resource communication. That is, with the MVIP or SCBus protocol, it is possible to put different vendor""s hardware into the same product, but the application must still be written to each individual telephony resource within the product.
In an attempt to address the shortcomings of the previous three generations, a fourth generation of computer telephony products was developed. These conventional computer telephony products were developed using the MVIP and SCBus design schemes and layered on a new application protocol that allowed multiple applications to run on a given set of computer telephony resources.
These conventional computer telephony products do allow for allocating multiple computer telephony resources among multiple applications, but only in a static manner. That is, resource allocation in these products is fixed during an initialization of the product by using a configuration file provided by a product administrator and this configuration file cannot be changed without re-starting or re-initializing the product which, of course, requires all applications to be shut down.
This fourth generation of computer telephony products still has a number of drawbacks. For example, the computer telephony resources must be allocated to an application before any application goes into operation. Further, these products lack flexibility, such as dynamic configuration, because all resources must be allocated at initialization to particular applications. Moreover, these products lack dynamic scalability because the addition or subtraction of new computer telephony resources requires re-start and re-initializing of the computer telephony product.
Therefore, there is a need for a telecommunication system and method that (1) allows for dynamic configurability of telecommunication resources that (2) does not require applications to be dedicated to particular telecommunication resources at development or system initialization, while (3) providing system flexibility and scalability by allowing for addition or subtraction of telecommunication resources without re-initializing the telecommunication services system and (4) provides fewer and shorter paths to completion for applications.
The present invention includes a telecommunication (including computer telephony) system and a method for dynamically allocating one or more telecommunication resources to a requesting telecommunications application within a telecommunications product. The present invention includes computer hardware components; for example, a central processing unit, a memory, and a storage device that are coupled through a data bus line. The present invention may also include other computer hardware components; for example, a video card, a serial port, a device controller, and a network card.
In one embodiment, the telecommunication system or product also a plurality of telecommunication resources and a telecommunication services kernel. The telecommunication system works with one or more applications that provide telecommunication functions. Each application is capable of responding to an event generated within the telecommunication system. Further, at least one telecommunication resource is capable of generating an event for a requested application. This event may include executing (processing) a requested application.
The telecommunication services kernel couples the requested application with a required telecommunication resource or resources for that application. When the application completes execution and finishes use of the telecommunication resource or resources, the telecommunication services kernel de-couples the required telecommunication resource or resources from the requested application and makes it available for another instance of that application or another application within the system.
In one embodiment, the telecommunication services kernel includes a system manager module, a session manager module, a hardware manager module, a resource manager module, and a connection manager module. The modules are coupled through a core services module interface to a core services module. The core services module passes messages between an operating system that interfaces with the hardware components of the telecommunication system, and the modules of the telecommunication services kernel.
The system manager module provides an inventory of the plurality of logical telecommunication resources in the telecommunication system. In addition, the system manager starts applications as requested in response to the event. The session manager module is coupled to the system manager and registers each application that is started and currently executing in the telecommunication system.
The hardware manager module initially configures each physical telecommunication resource and maps physical resources into logical units that is in or added to the telecommunication system. The hardware manager module also tracks each telecommunication resource that is not allocated from the plurality of telecommunication resources. The resource manager is coupled to the hardware manager module. The resource manager module tracks each telecommunication resource that is allocated to and in use by any application.
The connection manager module is coupled to the resource manager module. The connection manager module establishes routing information in the telecommunication system using internal routing tables, internal and external telephony resource mapping, and it""s own internal connection map. The routing information includes voice and data paths both internally, as well as externally to, the telecommunication system.
Where possible, the connection manager provides a route from this routing information to a telecommunication resource in response to the telecommunication resource needing a particular voice or data path. The connection manager then notifies the application that the path is either successfully set up or was not successful, in which case each application must determine what further action may be necessary.
The telecommunication system also includes a virtual device interface that is coupled, or may be integrated with, to the telecommunication services kernel. The virtual device interface provides an interface between an application and the telecommunication services kernel. The virtual device interface is a virtual telephony resource having all possible telecommunication resource capabilities. The virtual device interface includes a translation unit, a command receive unit, and a command send unit.
The command receive unit receives a request from the application to perform a particular function. The translation unit translates this virtual device command from the application to the specific hardware-related commands that can be understood by the vendor- or standards-specific telecommunication resources in the telecommunication system. The command send unit issues the specific commands to the specific telecommunication resource. The components and process also function vice versa so that a telecommunication resource command is translated for the application.
Thus, applications may be written to this single interface rather than to each specific interface associated with each telecommunication resource. This allows development of systems without prior knowledge or understanding of the capabilities of particular hardware vendors or other telephony resources, thereby reducing and shortening the number of development paths necessary.
The telecommunication system provides a process for dynamically assigning at least one telecommunication resource to the application requesting the telecommunication resources in response to the triggering event signal. Specifically, the event signal is received by the telecommunication services kernel. The telecommunication system starts and executes an application in response to the event signal.
The application then signals a request for a telecommunication resource from the telecommunication services kernel. In response to this request, the telecommunication services kernel determines if a telecommunication resource is available for allocation. If a telecommunication resource is available for allocation it proceeds to allocate that available telecommunication resource to the application. If telecommunication resources are not available, the application is notified and the application provides further responses as to a relevant course of action.
When the application completes execution, it notifies the telecommunication services kernel. The telecommunication services kernel de-allocates the telecommunication resource from the application. The telecommunication resource is now available to be allocated for a future request for a telecommunication resource by an application.
The telecommunication system and method of the present invention advantageously allows for allocating a telecommunication resource to an application in a dynamic manner. By keeping a single pool or multiple administrator defined pools of telecommunication resources, rather than dedicating each particular telecommunication resources to particular applications, the present invention beneficially increases overall system utilization and efficiency. Moreover, the present invention decreases system costs because more applications can be introduced into the system without having to arrange for additional dedicated telecommunication resources.
In addition, the present invention allows for telecommunication resources to be dynamically added or subtracted from the telecommunication system without having to re-start and re-initialize because the telecommunication services kernel manages the telecommunication resources and the applications are not dedicated to any particular telecommunication resource. Further, application developments costs are also reduced because applications can be written to a single, standardized virtual device interface so that concerns of writing to specific or particular vendor or manufacturer defined telecommunication resource specifications are eliminated.
The features and advantages described in the specification are not all inclusive and, in particular, many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings, specification, and claims. Moreover, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.